


Six Hundred Moons

by bonespell



Series: Faronclan AU [4]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: ?? - Freeform, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Faronclan Canon Compliant, and shark was like yeah okay, i angsted steampaw, i was like okay she has a tragic backstory so i wanna write it for hwr, in the au she is literally a ghost hello, smokepaw is spirit tracks link, so here it is i really don’t know what to tag this, steampaw is spirit tracks zelda, uhh steampaw dies at the beginning but that’s a given and there’s no death scene considering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26209678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonespell/pseuds/bonespell
Summary: When Steampaw is eight moons old, she’ll never be anything she could have been.
Relationships: Smokepaw & Steampaw
Series: Faronclan AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852108
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Six Hundred Moons

**Author's Note:**

> so i wrote more faronclan angst because i have no self control. enjoy.
> 
> au belongs to @Endofwave

When Steampaw is eight moons old, she is sneaking out of her den, much to the chagrin of the other apprentices. She just wants to go down to the river and wade for a bit. Her father doesn’t want her wandering about - he says he’s scared for her safety. Steampaw doesn’t know why. She trusts her clan. They’d never hurt her.

When Steampaw is eight moons old, she is proven wrong. She sneaks down to the river, and hears the deputy, Coalslight, and a number of other cats discussing. She figures it’s a night patrol, which isn’t uncommon since Shadowclan has been causing trouble.

Steampaw flattens herself under a bush, hoping they won’t see her and tattle on her to her father. She doesn’t want the earful and she _definitely_ doesn’t want to deal with _mousebile_ . _Yuck._ She waits for them to pass.

Steampaw holds her breath so she doesn’t make a sound. She tries to listen in on the conversation, hoping to bring gossip back to camp. 

“...And that will be the end. I will take my place, and you all will become my seconds.”

What?

“And you’re sure, Coalslight? This will work?” She hears another warrior, Bramblefoot, ask.

“Lionstar will fall, and that brat will never lead our clan.” Coalslight spits in response. Steampaw can’t help the gasp that escapes her. She hopes it’s quiet enough to get away with. It’s not.

Coalslight freezes, and then his warriors shove aside the brush. Steampaw is dragged out by the scruff. Coalslight sighs, but she can see him smiling.

“I assume you heard everything?” He asks, and before letting her respond, he says, “Well, I can’t let you live to run to your father. I’m sure you understand.”

“Bastard!” Steampaw cries, squirming. “Foxhearted coward!”

Coalslight lifts his paw to her neck, unsheathing his claws. “I’m not exactly displeased by this chance, either.”

When Steampaw is eight moons old, she’ll never be anything she could have been.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Her father is assassinated. He closes himself off in a deep depression, caused mostly, she hears, by her death. Steampaw searches for him for nights on end. She never finds him. She hears tales of cats who fade away after being forgotten. She decides she’ll preserve her father’s memory until he’s ready to see her again.

After a long while, she decides it’s not worth it. She never sees him again.

Time goes on, and the end of the clans rolls around. It is quick and swift. She doesn’t pay it much attention. It’s only natural. Everything ends.

She meets her idols and people she’d only heard tell about, but life is losing meaning. Well, death. She doesn’t think she wants to be part of this dumb clan system anymore. This clan system got her killed.

Maybe she’ll take a break.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


When Steampaw is five-hundred-and-eighty-four moons old, she meets Smokey. Her denmates and friends she meets in death come and go. It’s not a big deal, she tells herself. It’s only natural that eventually, she will be forgotten. She just wished she could have lived.

Then she meets a young loner living in a thundersnake station. He is dark in colour, and his eyes are hungry. He begs for food some days. He is more often kicked by polished shoes in his visible ribs.

Steampaw begins to watch him. She’s rooting for this kit. She wants him to live, wants to see him be a fighter. She gets attached. She’s not surprised - even if he can’t see her, she’s his last connection to the living world. She just wants one more connection.

One day, however, when Steampaw is five-hundred-and-eighty-seven moons old, he looks her directly in the eyes from where he is crouched under a bench and asks who she is. She squeals in delight childishly. The loner stares at her, unamused. He asks her why she has stars in her fur.

Steampaw takes to chattering to him. She hasn’t introduced herself besides merely as a ghost, and Smokey calls her Ghost when he wants her attention. He keeps getting thinner, getting hungrier. He perseveres, but she is attached. She doesn’t want him to die.

So she teaches him how to hunt. It’s a little different, in the twoleg-populated area, but she teaches him every skill her father had taught her while she was under his apprenticeship. She jokes about being his teacher. Apprentice is too real for her. She doesn’t want to say the word.

Steampaw will never have an apprentice, not in however many moons her memory remains. She will never grow old.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Smokey has filled out, but Steampaw wishes she’d learned any basic medicine. Come Leafbare, Smokey is coughing. Loners pass through now and again. They used to talk to Smokey, maybe share a meal with him, but now they won’t draw near. Steampaw curls herself around him as she sleeps, hoping her ghostly visage will provide warmth.

She knows it won’t.

One day, a rogue wanders through. He’s orange-brown in colour, and he’s forlorn behind the eyes. He talks of the clans to a sick Smokey, and doesn’t seem to fear his sickness. He provides a _rabbit_ (Steampaw would love to know where he got that) and tells stories. Steampaw can’t help herself in correcting his inaccuracies about Thunderclan, even though the tom can’t hear her. 

Later that night, Smokey confronts her. She’s kept her secret for so long, but he looks so tired. She tells him everything.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Steampaw guides Smokey in the direction of the supposed clan reincarnate. She lets him rest while she listens in on every kittypet and loner’s conversations she can find. She hopes she’s not leading a weakened Smokey to his death.

Miraculously, she leads him onto a stumbling property with something that reminds her of a patrol.

They hustle Smokey into the medicine den. She stays with him as he becomes Willowthorn’s apprentice. He goes by Smokepaw, and he tells her, in her moments of doubt, that she is just as much a part of the clan as he is. 

Steampaw is roughly six hundred moons old when she finally has a clan again. 

Steampaw is roughly six hundred moons old when she finally comes _home_.


End file.
